After her resurrection via the Lazarus Pit, Arrow‘s Sara Lance had a rather abrupt departure that left us scratching our heads.
Where is Sara Lance now?
Update (April 13, 2018): Sara Lance, played by Caity Lotz, has been on one of the wildest journeys of any character in the Arrowverse. After her death and resurrection, Sara found herself recruited by Time Master Rip Hunter to be a part of a team to defeat the immortal villain Vandal Savage. She would go on to join Rip, Leonard Snart, Mick Rory, Ray Palmer, Kendra Saunders, Carter Hall, Jax Jackson and Martin Stein as part of a ragtag team traveling through time on the Arrowverse spin-off Legends of Tomorrow.
Sara learned of her sister’s death at the hands of Damien Darhk in the season 1 finale in a heartbreaking scene with her father, Quentin Lance.
After Savage’s defeat at the end of Legends of Tomorrow season 1, Rip Hunter disappeared and Sara stepped into the role of captain aboard the time-traveling Waverider. With the departures of Kendra and Carter and the death of Leonard Snart, the team was filled out again by historian Nate Heywood and Justice Society of American member Amaya Jiwe. In this season, under Sara’s leadership, the team took on a trio of Arrowverse villains in Eobard Thawne, Malcolm Merlyn and Damien Darhk.
Much of this season saw Sara fighting her personal demons and her desire to save Laurel through time travel by killing Damien Darhk, thus preventing him from killing her. She had to come to terms with the fact that she, as a protector of time, could not use time travel for personal gain, such as saving her beloved sister.
Legends of Tomorrow‘s third season saw a rotating group aboard the Waverider. Rip left to start the Time Bureau, the successors to the Time Masters. Then, after Martin Stein’s death, Jax also left the ship. The Legends were filled out by hacker Zari Tomaz and Wally West, aka Kid Flash. Still under Sara’s leadership, the team fought the demon Mallus, who had recruited Damien and Nora Darhk to work for him.
Legends of Tomorrow‘s third season also saw Sara find love. She and Leonard Snart shared a fledgling romance in season 1, but he sacrificed himself to stop the Time Masters. In season 3, Sara came up against Time Bureau agent Ava Sharpe; the two initially butted heads, but sparks also flew until the two admitted their feelings for one another.
Sara is set to appear in Arrow‘s season 6 finale and will headline Legends of Tomorrow season 4 as the Waverider‘s Captain Lance.
Original story (November 13, 2015):After her untimely death in the Arrow season 3 premiere, Sara Lance was physically resurrected by the Lazarus Pit in Arrow season 4, episode 3, “Restoration.” Episode 4, “Beyond Redemption,” featured a feral Sara without a soul, and episode 5, “Haunted,” brought in Constantine to retrieve her soul.
Arrow season 4, episode 6, “Lost Souls,” then was our first look at a Sara Lance closest to the one who fell off the roof in the season 3 premiere. However, Sara was one of the titular lost souls, as she, like Thea, found herself dealing with the bloodlust that comes as a side effect of taking a dip in the Lazarus Pit. Rather than lean on her loved ones the way Thea is, though, Sara decided to leave town and search for her own way to deal with her resurrection.
This felt rather sudden, considering how much of the emotional arc of her resurrection was glossed over. We were left with a number of questions, including:
- What was her initial reaction to being alive and whole again?
- How is she dealing with the memory of Thea shooting her?
- How did she react to learning Malcolm is to blame for her murder?
- What does she think of Laurel becoming Black Canary in her absence?
- What are her thoughts on Nyssa’s arrest in Nanda Parbat? Does she want to see her former lover?
Arrow EP Wendy Mericle defends Sara’s exit, saying, “Sara is grappling with these really big issues. She’s still going to have the bloodlust and these issues to deal with, so she’s got to go find a different way of handling it. The way that Thea has chosen to deal with hers is not going to work for Sara.”
Additionally, actress Caity Lotz reminds us that this isn’t the first time Sara has left town. She left Starling City to return to the League of Assassins at the end of season 2, but not before bequeathing her leather jacket to Laurel. “She’s a wanderer, she’s a little bit of a gypsy. She has that in her soul where she never quite feels at home. That keeps driving her away.” She adds, “Hopefully [her loved ones] know her well enough that they would be accepting of it.”
“Laurel, when her sister makes that decision, [has] no choice but to honor it,” Mericle continues. “It’s going to be very sad, there’s no doubt about it. She’s losing her sister all over again, but she’ll still be out there. It’ll be different from previous losses because she will know that Sara is still out in the world and fighting the good fight on her own terms.”
As for how all this ties into Legends of Tomorrow, which Sara will be starring in, Lotz explains, “Sara is looking for a purpose. She’s been trying to stay away from everyone and everything, but it’s like, then why are you living life if it’s not for relationships with people? What’s the purpose? Sara is looking for a purpose, and that’s what Rip Hunter offers her.”
While that sounds promising, the extensive cast and limited episode order of Legends makes us wonder just how much time there will be to explore Sara’s emotional response to coming back to life, especially with a great evil like Vandal Savage to fight.
There’s still a lot to set up for Legends, including Sara’s transition from Canary to White Canary, and Sara leaving town on Arrow seems like an odd choice with the Arrow/Flash crossover only two episodes away.
Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET on The CW.